Modern tomato farming techniques have resulted in producing tomatoes and tomato products that have close to no tomato flavor.  Plants that produce thick-skinned tomatoes of uniform size and shape that ripen simultaneously to facilitate their harvest and transport are preferred. Frequent irrigation, extensive use of fertilizers, insecticides and weed killers all help to increase their production as much as possible but reduce their flavor.

Alexandros Gousiaris, a mathematician turned beekeeper / tomato conserve producer in Karditsa, in the heart of Greece's fertile Thessaly plains, cultivates an heirloom seed, which has been passed down for several generations in his family. Heirloom tomatoes are treasured old tomato varieties which are exceptional with regards to flavor.  No chemical fertilizers, insecticides or weed killers are used in their cultivation at the Gousiaris farm - they are certified organic.  Frequent watering is not necessary because this specific variety grows a dense stem and leaf system that absorbs and retains moisture. The tomatoes do not all ripen simultaneously - on any given plant, buds, flowers, green tomatoes, and red ripe tomatoes are all present, as nature intended and the tomatoes must be picked by hand.  The tomatoes are not uniform in size or shape, but are bright red and thin-skinned and, although these are all commercially unattractive traits, they produce something which nowadays is quite rare:  a passata that captures true tomato flavor.